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Fuji to mass-produce winning bike in design contest

PHILADELPHIA (BRAIN) — Fuji Bikes has been chosen by Oregon Manifest and Levi's as the manufacturing partner for The Bike Design Project, a design contest pairing high-profile design firms with U.S. bicycle craftsmen to create the "ultimate urban utility bike." Fuji will mass-produce the winning design.

"This is the first time that a bike building contest has moved beyond the prototype stage into mass production; we're thrilled that we can be the company to facilitate that next step," said Fuji president and CEO Pat Cunnane. "Our goal is to harness the potential of these forward-thinking collaborations by providing the winning team access to manufacturing resources and turning the winning concept into something consumers can buy and ride."

Teams from five cycling-centric cities are already at work on their designs: design firm Minimal and framebuilder Method Bicycle in Chicago; Pensa and Horse Cycles in New York; Industry and Ti Cycles in Portland, Ore.; Huge Design and 4130 Cycle Works in San Francisco; and Teague with Sizemore Bicycles in Seattle.

Beginning this week, the teams will document their progress via Instagram and process diaries posted to partner FastCompany magazine's websites Co.Design and Co.Exist. The final designs will be publicly unveiled at celebration events in each of the participating cities on July 25. Online voting for the winning design runs from July 28-Aug. 2.

"The Bike Design Project is an innovation platform challenging design leaders and bike craftsmen across the nation to collaboratively develop meaningful design solutions for the everyday rider," said Shannon Holt, Oregon Manifest co-founder.

"Our goal is to not only spark new thinking around the urban bicycling experience, but to redefine the category itself."